Emperor Constantine the Great's impact on Christianity: The FACTS vs. the MYTHS!
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 10:01 pm
See the video at the bottom for a fact-filled history of the Emperor Constantine's pursuit of Christianity, and how it deconstructs many false myths about his rule, motivations and influence upon the Christian world, some 300 years after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Born in 272 A.D., Constantine the Great was Roman emperor from 306 to 337 A.D. He was the first emperor of the empire to convert to Christianity - a stunning occurrence after so many years of Roman persecution - and often, quite severe - of Christians. Further, Constantine decriminalized the practice of the Christian faith. Make no mistake, his adoptance of Christianity and allowing the freedom of it's practice had a massive impact upon the spread of Christianity throughout the Western world. The far-ranging Roman empire, it's infrastructure and road systems, all of these allowed travel and the influence of Christianity to explode across the Roman empire and beyond. Of course, well before this period, the early church had spread remarkably fast, yet while under significant threat and many dangers to believers.
There are quite a number of false beliefs and myths about Constantine, including belief that he had remained a dedicated worshiper and priest of, the solar god Sol-Invictus-Mithras. Although before his conversion, he did worship some of the traditional Roman solar gods. The Romans were polytheists, just like the Greeks had been, and they believed in an array of false gods.
Perhaps one of the most widespread myths about Constantine is that his conversion to Christianity was insincere, that he had actually remained a pagan, and only pragmatically adopted Christianity as a mere cynical ploy he found politically useful in his governance and control of the empire. Books like The Da Vinci Code have helped perpetuate this myth into modern times. Further, it is widely and mistakenly believed that Constantine made Christianity the official state religion.
But likely the biggest false belief that has been perpetuated about Constantine is that he controlled and dictated the actual books that would end up in the Canon of Scripture - per assertions that he even hand-picked what he wanted in, and what he wanted to eliminate.
Watch this myth-busting video about Constantine the Great HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi5OVchVSBM